Happy New Year Saxontologists! It has been a very eventful holiday season for your pastor/leader/spiritual guru, i.e. ME. I met a very strange man dressed in a red suit who seemed obsessed with getting me to sit on his lap. In fact, I met him a few times. He just seemed to pop up wherever we went and, to be honest, he looked slightly different each time. Mom and Dad were shockingly agreeable to the bizarre notion that I might want to greet this large, bearded, fashion-challenged individual no matter how I protested. But let's move on to more interesting (and less traumatic) news.
After Christmas, Mom, Dad, Kari and I loaded up the car and drove North to the Lake District. We stayed in a cottage in the countryside surrounded by sheep. I love to say "Sheep!" whenever I see them and I said it very often as I sat in my car seat and we drove around the countryside.
Did you know, dear Saxontologists, that there are ALOT of sheep in England? These are one, two of the sheep outside the cottage. (ps. I like to count now even though it sometimes is with my own made-up numbers.)
In the cottage, I had my own tiny room (and crib). The room was so tiny that my dad had to jam the crib behind the door so I couldn't escape from bed and wander at night....but I could still open the door and yell at them when I was bored!
I quickly found the vaccume cleaner as I had forgotten my own at home.
Here we are walking near Conniston Water.
Did you know that if you yell, "Hey duck!" they do not respond?
Dad and I in front of the Old Man of Conniston (a mountain Dad says that we will climb when I am bigger). As you can tell from my coughing, I was still trying to get over a virus that had been plaguing me.
Mom, Dad, Kari and I went to Ambleside and ambled around. Kari got sick of walking and happily rode in the stroller while I surfed my buggy board.
On New Year's Eve, we drove even further North to the borderlands of Scotland to a town called Carlisle. Carlisle is famous for being the Western outpost of Hadrian's Wall (which was built by these guys called the Romans which really seem to excite my Dad).
Personally, I liked the choo choo exhibit best. Dad says that my strange fascination with choo choos can only be genetic and inherited from Poppy Fred.
Mom said that she was very sorry that these stocks were not available for purchase at the museum giftshop.
We spent New Year's Day near Beatrix Potter's house in Near Sawrey walking. We walked to a pond where I am sure Jeremy Fisher lives (he didn't come out...it was too cold) called Moss Eccles Tarn.
Here I am with Dad at the church in Far Sawrey on the walk.
The next day, we walked near Hawkshead but, I only have this photo because I was too grouchy and insisted on walking BY MYSELF (which, between you and me, sucked).
On our way home, we stopped for a very fast visit to Grandma and Grandad Wainwright in Lincoln but mom didn't take photos because she forgot. (sigh.) What is the point of having an entourage and papparazzi if they forget to take photos, I ask you?
Anyway, I hope that 2009 has begun for you with as much loveliness and joy as I seem to have been fortunate enough to find (when I am not busy having a 2 year old temper tantrum). This year promises to be quite an interesting one...at least that is what my mom and dad keep promising.... As always, I will keep you posted on how it all ACTUALLY works out...no spin, gloss or sugar-coating will be tolerated when you are 2 years old, you know.
Santa is magic because he knows EXACTLY what every kid wants. He knew that my sister needed a doll house and that I needed a fire station. What self-respecting four year old boy doesn't NEED a fire station?
Oh yeah, I got some other presents. In fact, I got so many things that I told my mom and dad that "my hands are getting tired from opening presents."
But I fought through the pain and opened every single one of the gifts (and even a few of my sister's when she wasn't looking).
